Hostess plans to bring more automation this summer to its Cloverhill bakery on Chicago’s Northwest Side as part of an effort to turn around the money-losing business, company executives said Wednesday.

More automation could translate to layoffs at the bakery, though none have yet been announced. A company spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to requests for information. Hostess — maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and other brands — bought the bakery and its brands from Swiss company Aryzta earlier this year for about $25 million after an immigration crackdown decimated Cloverhill's workforce and sales.

Since the deal, the Cloverhill business has been a drag on Hostess profits, but executives on the Hostess earnings call Wednesday said that would soon change. Cloverhill will break even soon, maybe within a few weeks, and then be profitable by the fall, said Hostess Chairman Dean Metropoulos, a billionaire turnaround artist known for reviving old brands for sizable profits.

New machinery for automation likely will be delivered to the plant in August and installed in September, fueling a strong end to the year for the bakery, Metropoulos said.

At one point during the earnings the call, Metropoulos alluded to a reduction in workforce at the Cloverhill bakery.

“There’s hundreds of employees that — I mean, Hostess has 1,200, 1,300 employees in total. (Cloverhill) had 1,100 or 1,000 when we acquired it, it’s down significantly. So there’s a big opportunity to automate,” Metropoulos said, according to a transcript of the call, when answering an analyst question.

He also said Hostess will pursue more acquisitions.

In 2014, Arytza paid more than $670 million for the Cloverhill business, including a facility in Cicero that it’s since sold to Bimbo Bakeries, according to Dealogic.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement audit of a temporary worker agency in 2015 resulted in the loss last year of about 800 Cloverhill workers, roughly one-third of the workforce. Cloverhill workers have since complained of unfair and discriminatory practices at the bakery and have called upon Hostess to improve the situation.

Hostess is a leaner and more profitable company with far fewer employees and a cheaper distribution model compared with what it was before bankruptcy in 2012. Hostess shuttered its longtime Twinkie plant in Schiller Park, laying off about 400 workers, in 2014.

Some analysts were pleased Wednesday with the progress of the turnaround at the Cloverhill bakery.

“(We) are encouraged by the Cloverhill acquisition progress and expect top-line momentum and improving gross margin trends to drive significant earnings power in 2019,” wrote David Palmer of RBC Capital Markets in a research note Wednesday.